Thursday, January 17, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

It’s deep and we’re not sure it’s playable.

With one post-Mitchell Report Congressional hearing on the books and at least one more on the way next month, how will the national pastime restore its steroid-tainted image? Dr. Don Roy, management and marketing, says Major League Baseball (MLB) “is a money-making machine at the moment, but perceptions that little or nothing is being done to remove the steroid culture … could hurt the brand. As important as maintaining trust with fans who buy tickets for games, MLB must proactively manage the steroid issue to retain the value of MLB for its sponsors and broadcast partners. Their stakes in MLB are much higher than the everyday fan who shells out money for tickets and concessions.”

Contact Roy at 615-904-8564.
droy@mtsu.edu

I wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot poll.

The voters are having a good laugh at the expense of the pollsters and pundits who misread the outcome of the New Hampshire Democratic primary. And Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism, says history is replete with election prediction mistakes. In addition to the infamous 1948 “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline in the Chicago Tribune, Burriss says, “In 1916, Lee DeForest, considered one of the fathers of radio, broadcast the Charles Evans Hughes—Woodrow Wilson election returns and predicted a victory (for Hughes). Of course, there was plenty of blame to spread around since DeForest was getting his news from the New York American … So, as we start to, as it were, ‘count ‘em down’ until the election, let’s not take all the polls and predictions too seriously.”

Contact Burriss at 615-898-2983.
lburriss@mtsu.edu

READ all about it

Four recent MTSU graduates now grace the halls of MTSU’s James E. Walker library and the walls of Tennessee high schools on posters encouraging students to read. The latest READ posters are available for viewing in the periodicals section of the library on the main floor. They feature young people from dramatically different walks of life who found reading to be essential to their academic, spiritual and professional lives. Bill Black, library professor in charge of administrative services, says library officials are working gradually to distribute the posters to schools throughout Tennessee. Featured on the posters are John Awan, a native of Sudan who has worked to collect books for shipment to his war-torn homeland; Matthew Bullington, a Murfreesboro native and recipient of a Presidential Scholarship, which paid for all four years of his MTSU education; Kimmie Jones, a Brentwood woman who has refused to let muscular dystrophy block her career in public relations; and Petar Skobic, a native of Croatia who learned English by reading Stephen King and J.R.R. Tolkien novels.

Contact Black at 615-898-2772.
wblack@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

WHERE HISTORY COMES ALIVE--You can contribute to the living legacy of MTSU by allowing officials at the James E. Walker Library to make digital images of your university memorabilia. The MTSU Memory Project is looking for photographs and documents from both the campus community and the community at large. Eventually, these images will be posted on a user-friendly, searchable Web site suitable for both research and reminiscing. If it’s in your attic, in a piano bench, or on a living room bookshelf, the Memory Project wants to make a digital image of it and preserve it for all time to come as part of the institution’s history. For more information, contact Ken Middleton at 615-898-8524 or kmiddlet@mtsu.edu or Mayo Taylor at 615-898-5605 or mtaylor@mtsu.edu.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION--“Freed Voices: A Dance Concert Featuring Choreography and Performance by African-American Guest Artists,” a concert to explore and celebrate diversity in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19 and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, in Tucker Theatre on the MTSU campus. More than 30 members of MTSU Dance Theatre, as well as four internationally and nationally known guest artists, will be featured in the upcoming performance. The guest artists were individually commissioned to create works for the student performers, as well as perform solos during the upcoming concert event. Tickets to the Jan. 19-20 performance are $10 per person with group rates available. MTSU students will be admitted free with a valid university ID. For more information about the upcoming dance performances, contact Kim Neal Nofsinger at 615-494-7904 or nofsinge@mtsu.edu.